I started my new biology class yesterday and thus far I'm on the fence about my instructor.
I liked him pretty well at first, he seemed nice and approachable. Then he got started on the lecture and said a couple things that really irked me.
We started talking about what constitutes life and that led to a discussion of viruses. He asked us to name a few common ones. HIV, Rhinovirus, Influenza...and then someone brought up HPV.
Instructor launches into a whole thing about how HPV can lead to cervical cancer and 60-80% of women under 25 are infected with it and men are unaffected by it, so,
"Get tested and get your pap smears, ladies!"
First of all, this is not a health class. It's not a human anatomy class. It's not a sex education class. It's a general biology course. It's not his place to tell me I need to go get speculum stuck in my vag and have my cervix swabbed. Secondly, just because there's no test for men they should go on their merry way without a care in the world when it comes to HPV? I don't think so.
After complaining to my male friend after class and him agreeing with me, I was ready to let it go. I figured maybe the guy is just a little socially awkward and doesn't realize how his speech might have made some of us uncomfortable.
Then came the biology lab, that same day, with the same guy. He started off by going over safety regulations with us and did a good job of it. Until he started talking about the proper procedure for if someone gets a chemical spilled on them: If you spill a dangerous chemical on yourself, take off your clothes and hose down.
Makes sense to me, no issue here. But then he started talking about how 'college aged women' probably won't want to just yank their clothes off in front of everyone, so if someone gets a chemical spilled on them and needs to remove their clothes, hold your coat up for them to give them some privacy. Then he made this crack: Well, there DO seem to be a lot of college-aged women on the internet who want to take their clothes off in front of everyone, but, he he he, I doubt any of you do.
Is 'coeds gone wild' humor really necessary in the biology lab?
Maybe I'll go through the rest of the semester and never hear him say anything like this again and end up liking him. Then again, maybe I'll spend the semester getting irritated with him. Time will tell.
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whoa, he sounds annoying. it sounds like he's trying to be young and hip and is really missing the mark.
WOW. He is a jackass. The first comment - inappropriate - none of his business. THEN to make the second one on the same day, as if taking one's clothes off for a chemical spill so one's skin will not be damaged is something women (only, apparently) will be either embarassed by OR use it as an excuse to perfect their strip tease - but of course none of you, he he he.
GROSS.
By the way, I'm sure it won't be the last dumb, inappropriate comment to he will say...I'm sorry to be a pessimist for your semester :(
I don't think he meant that men shouldn't care about HPV, but if there is no test for them, what can they do? It's important to womens' health to get pap smears regularly. The reminder was out of place, maybe, but still a useful one.
the other joke he made sounds to me like a comment on the inaccuracy of portrayals of college aged women in media/ the internet, ie in the internet college aged women are shown this way, but in reality they are not.
I didn't hear the tone of his comments, but they don't seem very offensive to me.
What can they do? Use a condom every time (not 100% effective, but does help). Encourage their partners to get tested. Examine their genitals for warts that they might not notice day to day.
The advice might be good, but I feel the situation advice is given in is very important. If my boss or a random man on the subway started advising me about my sexual health, I'd be extremely uncomfortable whether the suggestion was good or not.
His second comment seemed to me like a joke about college girls who participate in things like Girls Gone Wild. I could be wrong, but either way, it wasn't necessary. To me it seems like it would be be smarter to just not crack sexual jokes in an educational setting. It's a classroom full of people who come from many different backgrounds, not a room full of the teacher's buddies.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
YES.
I'm surprised so many don't find anything wrong with his comment.
I don't think the situation was that random. They'd been discussing HPV in a science class. Colleges have a problem with STIs, and they do a lot of things to promote sexual health. Promoting pap smears in a college anatomy class is normal and acceptable. Would it bother you if they discussed the common cold and ways to prevent it?
This is exactly the attitude that stops people from taking care of and learning about their sexual health, and it's not a good thing.
College age men being perfectly willing to whip it out for anyone who wants to take a look? I'd say in general most people are not into public nudity. Even naturists only take their clothes off in appropriate situations. Your professor is a douche. Two strikes, he's out.
When I was in grad school, we worked with some *extremely* damaging chemicals. The only safety shower on the floor was in the next lab, requiring a streak through the halls to reach (note: clothes off ASAP in case of spills! especially stockings.). We spent a significant amount of time discussing what would happen if somebody ever actually needed the shower. Consensus was that someone would follow the streaker with a lab coat for modesty.
Is this an older professor, or is this a TA? Many TAs see themselves as one of the kids, cracking all sorts of jokes and bringing beer to review sessions. Also they have less experience with what's appropriate.
I hadn't thought of that. I think he's about in his mid-30s and he mentioned he's hoping to become a Professor's Assistant soon. He also said he dropped out of college the first time around to be a rock star.
Assistant Professor or Professor's Assistant? Those sound like very different things to me ;-). In either case he is probably a grad student or recently was a grad student.
In general, its not at all uncommon to have a TA who is 23 teaching a class full of students who are on average 21 but some might be much older. I personally have had a few students who were older than me, and many who were only 1 year younger than me. (I'm not a TA (yet) but my position had very similar duties). In that situation its very easy for the TA to see themselves as socially equal to the students, but just someone who happens to know more about the subject. I've had lots of students friend me on facebook and that kind of thing.
Even with a larger age gap, if he's been in school this whole time (or in a rock band, i.e., not a formal office setting), he probably sees himself as pretty much equal to the students, he's just someone who knows a little bit more. Its not like a high school teacher who is supposed to be a perfect role model. Most TAs treat their students pretty much the same as they would treat a classmate who asked for their help in a course. The ones who treat the students as inferior annoyances are the ones to watch out for.
He might be nervous if he's never taught a class by himself before. He might be trying to make jokes to put himself on a more approachable level with the students. Honestly, his jokes don't sound that bad to me, I'd give him a break if those are the only remarks he's made. HPV testing IS important and it IS unavailable for men, and his joke about chemical spills sounds like just a way to liven up the conversation and make people pay attention. It may have been a badly chosen joke but if that's the only thing I don't think I'd label him as sexist just yet.
Once I had a full professor (female) teaching a religious studies class at 8 AM put up a slide that said "Jewish Sects and the Positions They Took" and then act very disappointed when no one laughed. "What, are you all asleep? Jewish SECTS and the POSITIONS they took? Don't you get it? You guys need more coffee."
Re: the chemical spills, it seems like this is one of those situations where your prof needs to be reminded (perhaps not by you, but perhaps so) that bodies aren't necessarily sexual. If the choice were between exposing my various naughty bits and enduring painful chemical burns, it isn't hard for me to imagine where my priorities would be.
But I've never been famous for my modesty, either.
I think its important to bring up the idea that people might be nervous taking off their clothes-- someone could freeze in the moment and cause worse damage to themselves if they haven't thought about the issue ahead of time.
But I agree that mentioning porn (or even just stripping) on the internet was random and out of place. If he's new at teaching I'd give him some slack, he was probably just trying to break the ice (badly). But if he continues to make comments like that someone should definitely talk to him. A well thought out email might be the way to go, and then if he doesn't change it could be brought up with someone higher up in the department.
In order to preempt anymore awkward and inappropriate comments, and to save the guy some serious trouble later, you may want to take a classmate with you and talk to him. Because you're right; those comments aren't appropriate coming out of his mouth, especially the second one.
Just a related anecdote. I had a teacher in high school who said all sorts of inappropriate things. It was a small class with only me and 6 guys, and we were all juniors and seniors in high school so I guess the teacher felt like he could talk to us more like adults. (I had previously had him teach a different class in 9th grade with more students, and he acted more normal). He made all sorts of sexist and homophobic comments-- things like making fun of another teacher for being gay, or comments like "bringing your girlfriend to Cabo is like bringing your own beer into a bar." Worse than what he said was what he put up with from the guys in the class. In retrospect I probably should have complained to the school, but at the time I felt like I was mature enough to handle it myself, and I would get in huge arguments with all of them, the teacher included. The best thing about him was that since he started this whole type of conversation, he wasn't about to get me in any disciplinary trouble for talking back to him. Of course we wasted tons of class time when we should have been learning things, and he was a horrible teacher that whole year.
A few years later I was thinking about it and I realized that as much as I might have felt like an adult at the time, we were only 17 and that was pretty inappropriate. I don't think I was damaged by it at all except for the wasted learning time, but I should have said something just because if he continues doing that, someone else might be in that position who is less outspoken and feels much worse about it than I did. And he really ought to spend that time teaching instead of letting students get into random arguments about whether, like, all women are latent lesbians.
So, I definitely think that if this guy keeps bringing up things like porn (I actually think the HPV testing comment was ok), you should speak up. The lines are different in high school and college, but there's still no reason to bring up offensive things that are irrelevant to the course. But as mentioned above, I'd cut him some slack as long as its just the one joke. He's in a very different position from a high school teacher.
The HPV comment doesn't bother me. The subject came up, HPV is a very widespread problem, college is a great place to pick of STIs and so colleges tend to do whatever they can to encourage students to take care of themselves, and yes, get tested and get your pap smears. Would you have gotten offended if, while discussing mono, he told you not to share a glass of water with someone infected?
The second comment was out of line. I doubt it bothered most of the people in your class, but different people have different tolerance for sexual humor, and the classroom really isn't the place for him to be making that kind of joke.
And do get your pap smears.
This could constitute as sexual harassment. I think you should look into your school's policy. Schools, colleges, and universities are supposed to be places of learning, and learning is impossible when a person is or a group of people are made to feel inferior. That is why educational institutions have harassment policies in the first place.
So because you have Daddy issues - you think it's acceptable to hate on all fathers? Well, you know what? My life wasn't perfect either. My mom used to beat the crap out of me. I wasn in care by age 10. My brother was beaten with an organ leg, and moved out by age 11. My Sister also was gone by age 11. I was the youngest. We all suffered. When he slaps had no effect on me any more - she resorted to using weapons, canes, shoes bedroom furniture, whatever she could find.